Stuck and frustrated

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JD0710
JD0710 Posts: 26 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been using fitness pal now again since my holiday (was using it consistently before) but for the last month have frozen and not lost any weight.

I am frustrated because I have been exercising more (I play squash twice a week and swim a few times compared to nothing before) and have been on 1200 calories without going over and stuck to it. I don't know what I am doing wrong but I am still keen to lose weight and feel help and advice would be good now before I get to the 'Jack it all in' stage.

Can anyone help me as to why I may have not moved for this period of time.

I'm 27, 5ft 2 and 176lbs - I should be losing weight not maintaining for so long.

Replies

  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
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    Are you weighing everything you eat on a food scale?
  • spinwam
    spinwam Posts: 6 Member
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    It does seem like you should be losing weight. I am a similar height and that was my calorie intake or maybe a little less. I think I averaged 1100 calories and lost pretty steadily until I hit 150 pounds. Then it started to slow way down. I have plateaued too this last month but I know I've been eating more. Is it possible you are getting more calories in than you think?
  • dopeheathen
    dopeheathen Posts: 11 Member
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    If you keep doing the same things, eating the same things every day then you are bound to hit a wall. Lift some light weights 2-5lbs. Bicep curls 100 a day for a week and see what happens. It won't make you look like a bodybuilder, just mix it up.
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
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    dopeheathen wrote: »
    If you keep doing the same things, eating the same things every day then you are bound to hit a wall. Lift some light weights 2-5lbs. Bicep curls 100 a day for a week and see what happens. It won't make you look like a bodybuilder, just mix it up.

    really?? 100 reps of 2lb weights?? what exactly do you expect that to do?? you were right about one thing - she definitely won't look like a bodybuilder!! lol
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    dopeheathen wrote: »
    If you keep doing the same things, eating the same things every day then you are bound to hit a wall. Lift some light weights 2-5lbs. Bicep curls 100 a day for a week and see what happens. It won't make you look like a bodybuilder, just mix it up.

    really?? 100 reps of 2lb weights?? what exactly do you expect that to do?? you were right about one thing - she definitely won't look like a bodybuilder!! lol

    Exactly. I don't know which part about that is the worst; the implication that if you eat the same foods your body knows and makes you get stuck, the suggestion to lift "Barbie" weights to not look bulky, or to do 100 reps of the same arm workout every single day.
  • nancy1465
    nancy1465 Posts: 25 Member
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    I am sorry you are at a standstill. Very frustrating I know. I can only suggest you do weigh and measure EVERY bite you take in and drink your water. I also find I retain weight if my food choices are high in sodium. A few days ago I wasn't thinking and ate a leftover sausage with no bun for lunch and then ate 3 ounces of ham at dinner and a few tablespoons of CANNED beans (the worst) and I was up a pound the next day. This tends to happen to me when I dont watch the sodium. Good luck...you will get there.
  • JDixon852019
    JDixon852019 Posts: 312 Member
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    I know may sound like an attack on you, but seriously, if you are 170lbs and consuming only 1200cal a day and not loosing weight then you are not logging accurately. You can not defy physics.

    Are you eating back your exercise calories? Maybe you are over estimating how much you are burning. Only eat back up to 50%. Use a food scale to make sure your portions are accurate, this is a mistake we have all made.

    Also, how did you come up with the 1200cal budget? I didn't drop my intake that low until I hit 130lbs. If you rush and torment yourself during this process you are likely to gain all the weight back plus more later down the road.
  • dopeheathen
    dopeheathen Posts: 11 Member
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    Maxematics wrote: »
    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    dopeheathen wrote: »
    If you keep doing the same things, eating the same things every day then you are bound to hit a wall. Lift some light weights 2-5lbs. Bicep curls 100 a day for a week and see what happens. It won't make you look like a bodybuilder, just mix it up.

    really?? 100 reps of 2lb weights?? what exactly do you expect that to do?? you were right about one thing - she definitely won't look like a bodybuilder!! lol

    Exactly. I don't know which part about that is the worst; the implication that if you eat the same foods your body knows and makes you get stuck, the suggestion to lift "Barbie" weights to not look bulky, or to do 100 reps of the same arm workout every single day.

    My point was you can lose weight by lifting weights. It doesn't matter if they are light, I only suggested that as a starting point.
  • dmt4641
    dmt4641 Posts: 409 Member
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    You are eating more than 1200 calories. Are you using a scale and weighing all of your foods? Or are you eyeballing? Are you going out to eat several days a week and guesstimating?

    Track all your foods with a scale and add back 50% of your exercising calories. Thats all you need to do.

    BTW, doing a bicep curl with a 2 lb weight 100 times won't really do anything at all. If you are interested in strength training, try New Rules of Lifting for Women, Stronglifts 5x5, etc. There are a lot of great programs out there.
  • JD0710
    JD0710 Posts: 26 Member
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    I am weighing everything out (I do my meal prep the day before to avoid any mistakes the next day).

    My gym instructor pal thinks I'm not eating enough. I don't eat back any exercise calories. But is there such thing as not eating enough if you are not hungry?

    For those saying 1200 is so low - what is your suggestion?
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    edited July 2016
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    I would also add to this, are you checking your nutrition labels against the database in MFP? The database is user maintained, and is notoriously wrong (including the barcode scanning and green checkmarked 'verified' entries), so it's a good rule of thumb to double check everything. So many times we've seen calorie counts be off due to logging errors.

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  • bendis2007
    bendis2007 Posts: 82 Member
    edited July 2016
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    JD0710 wrote: »
    I am weighing everything out (I do my meal prep the day before to avoid any mistakes the next day).

    My gym instructor pal thinks I'm not eating enough. I don't eat back any exercise calories. But is there such thing as not eating enough if you are not hungry?

    For those saying 1200 is so low - what is your suggestion?

    If you are weighing everything out then by all accounts you should be able to lose weight. A quick BMR with your stats at a sedentary lifestyle means you burn about 1860 calories a day, eating back only 1200 would put you at a deficit of 600 calories a day or about a pound of weight loss a week.
    1. Make sure you weigh everything and log everything (including fruits, veggies, and whatever you cook with - oils, butters)- find correct nutritional values (there are some very incorrect ones on this website)
    2. Make sure your scale is calibrated correctly.
    3. You should re-run your stats and see if maybe you should be taking in more or less than 1200 calories based on your lifestyle/activity levels
    4. If you are recording everything properly and still not losing weight a visit to your doctor wouldn't hurt to run blood work and see if something else is going on.
    5. Weight loss is not linear, there's a lot of outside factors - bowel movements, water intake, cortisol levels, etc and it may take some time before you start to see results. It didn't take you 4 weeks to gain the weight, it's not going to take you 4 weeks to dramatically lose it either
    6. Make other small goals, body measurements, fitness goals, etc. so that even when the scale doesn't move you can still have small victories to stay motivated.
    Best of luck! Don't give up on yourself, this is a lifestyle change and it will take time

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